Intacs

General forum for the UK Keratoconus and self-help group members.

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Moderators: Anne Klepacz, John Smith, Sweet

Douglas Shaw
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri 08 Dec 2017 11:18 pm
Keratoconus: Yes, I have KC
Vision: Contact lenses

Intacs

Postby Douglas Shaw » Sat 09 Dec 2017 2:33 pm

Hi everyone

New on the forum.

I’m very interested in other KC sufferers experience of Intacs before and after surgery visual symptoms is of interest to me.

Thanks

Dougie

User avatar
Anne Klepacz
Committee
Committee
Posts: 2265
Joined: Sat 20 Mar 2004 5:46 pm
Keratoconus: Yes, I have KC
Vision: Graft(s) and contact lenses

Re: Intacs

Postby Anne Klepacz » Tue 12 Dec 2017 10:24 am

Hi Dougie and welcome to the forum. I was hoping that someone who has had Intacs would have replied to you by now, but as they haven't....
This is what Mr Lake, corneal consultant at Queen Victoria in East Grinstead said about corneal rings at our last members' meeting in London.
"Intra corneal rings aim to flatten the cornea and so improve the vision. They
can be used alone or in combination with CXL. There is still no consensus as
to which order is best – CXL first or rings first. They are made by several
manufacturers. Intacs are 5 or 6 mm in size and there is now Intacs SK for
more severe KC. Kerarings come in different shapes and sizes.
There was some resistance to using corneal rings because initially
mechanical methods were used to create the channels for the rings. Using a
femtosecond laser to make the channels gives much greater predictability.
Mr Lake quoted results of 80% of patients getting an improvement in unaided
vision of 2 lines, 12% with no change and 8% with worse vision. The risks of
corneal rings are infection and blood vessels growing into the cornea. Some
people will get bothersome glare and may need the rings removed.
People can be refitted with contact lenses following the insertion of corneal
rings."
If you put Intacs into the search on this forum, you'll probably get more stories of problems than success, but that is the nature of forums like this one - the people who are happy don't tend to post about their experience! But it's certainly true that they don't work for everyone although we've also heard from members who were pleased with the procedure.
Don't know if that helps - at the end of the day, decisions about surgery are such an individual thing.

KyD
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue 12 Sep 2017 11:19 pm
Keratoconus: Yes, I have KC
Vision: Contact lenses

Re: Intacs

Postby KyD » Tue 12 Dec 2017 12:15 pm

Hi Douglas... I have had both CXL and Intacs (Done seperately).

I have had intacs done in both eyes, my left was done Feb 2017 and my right May 2017. I was hoping it would improve my vision, which it has done somewhat but much less than i was hoping (though my vision is still improving very slowly so anything is possible). From what i understand Intacs are really hit or miss, you either see an improvement in vision or you see a negligible one. But the benefits even if you have not seen much of an improvement is that contacts should fit better (something I did not need help with as I didn't have a problem with fitting contact lenses). In terms of vision before I could not read the first line on the eye chart now i can make "some" of the letters out. The only downside I have seen from having the intacs done is that I now seem to have dry eyes which i never had before, this seems to cause a sort of foreign body sensation where I can feel them (this normally disappears after I sleep or put in some eye drops). I actually haven't felt this feeling in a while though after using said eye drops.

I had my procedure done at Queen Victoria Hospital under the surgeon Mr Hamada who works under Dr Lake. He used the laser Anna mentioned above to cut an opening to insert the rings. I believe he used a Keraring for my left eye and a Ferrara ring for my right. Apparently according to him the only difference between the two is that they are just two manufacturers solving the same problem. The procedures lasted no longer than 30 minutes. In terms of pain, like my CXL procedure the pain started after the procedure was done and lasted for the first 24 hours. I found the procedure to be only "slightly" less painful than CXL (which till this day is still the most painful thing i've ever experienced but again only lasted for the first day). I started wearing my contacts 2 -3 weeks after my procedure... although this was mainly due to not being able to see or do much without them.

Hope that helps.


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